4129928 Staff Serjeant Edwin Pickford Glider Pilot Regiment, Army Air Corps

Rank	4129928 Staff Sergeant (Glider Pilot)
Name & Decorations	Edwin Pickford
Service	British Army (Army Air Corps)
Unit	G Squadron, No 1 Wing, Glider Pilot Regiment, Army Air Corps
Attached To	British First Airborne Division
Operation	Operation MARKET GARDEN, Arnhem, Holland 17-24 September 1944
Date of Death	27 September 1944
Place of Death	near Sophiaweg, Nijmegen
Circumstances	DIed of Wounds
Age	25
Buried or Commemorated at	Jonkerbos War Cemetery, Nijmegen, Holland.
Grave or Memorial Number	Plot 13: Row A: Grave 2

Edwin, also known as Eddie, was born on 26/10/1919 in Chorlton, Lancashire, England; his parents were James Arthur Pickford (03/09/1891 - 1968) and Caroline (nee Cox) Pickford (07/04/1895 - 1975), of 16, Hall Street, Gorton, Manchester, Lancashire, England. His parents married in Chorlton, Lancashire the 2nd quarter of 1919. He was the oldest son of at least 4 children born to his parents. He was engaged to his fiancée Caroline at the time of his death.

Before he enlisted, Edwin was a Cotton Warehouse Clerk. He originally enlisted in the Cheshire Regiment. but later transferred to serve as a Glider pilot with G-Squadron, 1st Wing, Glider Pilot Regiment. Edwin was pilot of the first British glider plane to land on the Normandy beachhead on invasion day. He took part in the Glider insertion to the Battle of Arnhem, during Op Market Garden.

Staff Serjeant Edwin Pickford was initially buried in in the temporary burial ground near Mariënbosch (723598), Sophiaweg, Nijmegen, Gelderland, The Netherlands and was later reinterred on 11/04/1947 in the Jonkerbos War Cemetery during the consolidation of war graves into CWGC Cemeteries.

Gallery

Feel free to browse through my gallery images below.

Grave of S/Sjt Edwin Pickford died of wounds 27/4/1944

S/Sjt Pickford on the right with his co-pilot S/Sjt Rigby